More Festivities:)

Piper had her big Christmas party at school today! She was SOOOOO excited for it and got up early and everything! She said to me yesturday..."Guess what mom...I'm really excited for my party tomorrow!" That is big for Piper! She doesn't really express excitement for the future like that - I don't know how to explain it...I guess she's just oblivious to everything. We made these little reindeer candy bars for her teachers which she thought was so fun and LOVED writing on the back...To: My Teacher From: Piper (she has 21 teachers! I don't know all their names haha hence the 'my teacher') I mean she insisted on writing it ALL out. I may have sneaked a few and done myself because it took ALL AFTERNOON - LITERALLY!

Anyway, she had a blast and came home with lots of little toys and treats and a BIG smile on her face!! I think their favorite toy was the sticky hand things that you throw and they stick on the wall you know? They've been playing with those ALL night long.



I'm so glad she is getting this experience! It is so good for her to make friends and feel special. The teachers (high school students) are so nice and she loves them!




So guess what I saw sneaky Jack the Elf up to...

So excited for them to bust through tomorrow:)

Our House!

So...I have a couple requests for house pictures (this is for you Tiff and Carole!) I actually don't have hardly ANY so once I, ahem, clean my house :) I will put some good ones up. I always like seeing different houses/floor plans and decorations too so hopefully this will get you an idea for now. This first picture is the loft upstairs which has been deemed the play room. I liked this floor plan because when you go up the stairs it's a hall/balcony so you have to turn right to go into the playroom. So I can keep the mess contained a little better:)

This is the Kitchen not much of a picture of the kitchen but the girls sure are cute:)



This is Piper and Bailey's room right when we got it done. Now there are some pictures up and Bailey got her new big girl bedding for her b-day so that's up too. The nursery wasn't done when I took this picture but I was sure I took some of it when it was done but I guess not:( It's really cute though - think PINK haha - I'll get that taken ASAP! Then here is an outside shot before it was totally done. The front door is glass and the shutters are tan now.

So anyway there's a little glimps. I'll work on cleaning so I can get some good shots up later. I expect pics of your new house Carole!!

Jack

Our friendly Elf on the Shelf, Jack, has finally arrived! He made his grand appearance at breakfast Sunday morning and brought with him Snow-covered donuts and hot cocoa with snowballs and even mini kisses from Santa's Reindeer!!

Jack wrote the girls a little note which they were SOOO excited about and Piper couldn't BELIEVE that Jack new about the horse she wants for Christmas. They got new sock slippers and special sippies - fun fun! What a great little Elf!
Already the girls have been angels because they now that sneaky little Elf is watching:)

It sure has been fun so far! And I'm looking forward to all the fun places we'll find our little Elf (thank-you Pinterest!)

December Heat

So no Pictures today:( But I just HAD to post this for memory sake!! We've had just a WONDERFUL weekend! Well I have at least;) Last night was Curtis's work party so we had a real babysitter come over and watch ALL the girls and Curtis and I were FREE! It was wonderful! We were, however, a whole HOUR late to the dinner (and I think they waited for us - SAD!) but Curtis was working late and I couldn't get the babysitter fast enough blah blah...we made it though and the dinner was SOOOOOOOO good! I've hinted a thousand times to Curtis that I would love to go back for our anniversary, my birthday, columbus day... So anyway that was fun and then today we had family pictures taken which really isn't that fun and I don't know if we got any good ones but for some freakish reason I'm not stressed about them...then we had some way fun birthday parties to go to at parks which was soooo fun. (and the girls just LOVED playing with daddy!!!) And then for the BEST part...Curtis and I went on ANOTHER date (sort of ) to get groceries. Kennedy came over and babysat so we could do some errands without the little monsters-I mean munchkins. It was beautiful! And Curtis had some coupons for free hot cocoa at starbucks so we cranked the airconditioner and had hot chocolate on our little drive - gotta love Texas:)

Anyway, it has just been such a wonderful weekend I think really because we got to spend time with Curty!! We sure do love him!

Santa Claus!

Santa Claus has come to town! Tonight Santa came to the League City Library! And we were ready and waiting. Sadly we missed his grand entrance on an old fire engine (because turns out it is sooooo not easy to get anywhere at a specific time with 3 little kids - Lena spit up ALL over me, Bailey wouldn't get her buckles on and somewhere in there we had a stinky diaper) But that's ok - we still got to see the engine (which was really cool!) and of course we still got to see SANTA! However, Lena was the only one brave enough to sit on his lap:) I think santa was worried about holding her but he really didn't have an option, I just handed her over and walked away to get my picture haha.

This is as close as I could get the other girls:) Well, they got a tiny bit closer but both were on verge of tears. They lasted long enough to get their candy cane and ornament and then ran away. Bailey told Santa she wanted a cookie and Piper had me tell Santa she wantes a big horse (the one at target).

After meeting Santa, they had snack and a little craft! How fun! and Cute!! The girls LOVED it.

And Bailey was very very proud of her ginger bread girl.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

It's that time of year! Hooray!! Saturday we headed over to Lowes to get our CHRISTMAS TREE! The girls, especially Piper, were soooooo excited. Piper's been bouncing off the walls ever since:) She kept asking 'are we going to decorate it? When are we going to decorate it? Now, are we going to now?' Seriously NONSTOP!
We started Sunday night but ran out of lights and ended up finishing Monday for FHE. It was so fun! The girls LOVED the Christmas music and especially LOVED looking at all the ornaments. I'd say our house was pretty Jolly!

LOVE this picture of my 4 favorite people!

Gobble Gobble!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone! Can you believe it - time sure does fly!! We had a wonderful weekend and were so grateful to get to celebrate with our favorite Texans! Julie is a trooper and still cooked Thanksgiving diner despite being prego! (Yuck raw turkey- I don't know if I could have done it while pregnant) It was a wonderful meal and we had so much fun chillin' and being fat on turkey day! Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on gratitude which was good for me...we have so much to be grateful for! I'm so grateful for my family and that we are all so healthy and that we live in a country that allows us the freedom of religion and opportunity to work hard to provide so many luxuries to our children. I know - not eloquently put but I was thinking a lot of those poor Romanian children in the orphanages and how grateful I am that I don't have to send my children away just so they can have a "shot" at a better life or send them away just to "hope" they will get fed more than I can feed them. I'm so grateful that a.) have the knowledge that I have B.) have the resources I need and of course C.) have a wonderful husband who works hard for us so that we can provide our children with the basics and beyond. What a huge blessing!

Anyway...back to pictures...

The girls had a great morning hanging out with daddy outside while I cooked. I love this action shot of Bailey


And Piper is always such a little mom! Love the boots and tutus:)

Here are my favorite turkey's playing play dough Wednesday night waiting for daddy to get home and start the celebrations.

Picture Overload!

I was going to blog yesturday because it was Lena's 3 month birthday but just ran out of time! I think a day late will be ok though:) Yup...Lena is 3 months old!! How fast time flies! I can't believe it - she is getting big so fast. She is just always soooooo alert and loves to smile at ANYONE who will smile back - heck! Even if they don't smile back like the puppy on her bouncer, she still smiles! She giggles REALLY cute! It's not dainty at all which you would think it would be by looking at her. She has just discovered her hands and has a great time going to town chowing on them. Talk about slobber! Piper and I were trying to get a good 3 month old picture of her last night but this is the best we could get. I think all of them turned out with her looking like she'd just seen a ghost. Anyway, she is a beautiful, sweet, perfect baby and I just wish time could stand still so I could enjoy it a little longer.

Curtis was really late on Monday so we decided to have FHE last night and we decided to start holding our kids to a chore chart. I know! We are aweful and insane for not having started yet but I just wasn't sure how to go about it. Well last night we made up charts and talked about what all our chores are blah blah and guess what... Piper is SOOOOOOOO excited about it!!! I knew she would be because she is awesome like that but I didn't think she'd be THIS into it! So today we decorated little jars for each of them that when they go over and above their chores or do a good deed or are super nice to me or each other they can earn a pom pom to put in it. Once it's full they get to go on a special outing with one of us - Piper is STOKED! All day she's been cleaning up after herself and asking if she can help and saying please and thank you and EVEN sharing! I love it! I hope she keeps it up because I REALLY REALLY want to take her to the Nutcracker in Houston - wouldn't that be so fun!

Moving on...I went to a thrift store and got this little bumbo seat and LOVE it. Lena is still not a fan of laying on her back and so this chair is PERFECT for her. I just threw this pic in because it has all my cute girls in it.


This last weekend we went to Houston outdoor theater for a super fun russian circus performance totally FREE! and we got seats up close! How great is that. Piper LOVED it and it was actually a really good performance!




On October 30th we blesses little Lena! She was so good and SOOOO cute. This is her in her blessing dress. I was sad I couldn't use the same dress that Piper and Bailey were blessing in but they were blessed so early and we waited so long to bless Lena BUT it was fun to get to pick out a new one! I thought she was ADORABLE!!


We were so lucky to get to have Curtis's family out for it and had SOOOO much fun with them. Wow! it sure was a whirlwin (sp?) of a weekend though! We went to the beach on saturday, rode the 4 wheeler and motorcycle in the afternoon and went to Kemah in the evening! Sunday we blessed Lena in the Relief Society room (haha - our bad! we didn't know it was stake conferance until after everyone had bought there tickets - oops!) which was nice to have our family and close friends there then had a BBQ at our house after. It sure was a party! In the afternoon everyone (minus me and chelsea) went on a walk to the park by our house and little Bailey hurt her ankle:( going down the slide. She crawled for the next week but she's back up on it now at least until she decides Lena has been held too much and it's her turn - then she acts like it hurts again;)

Here's my little beach baby! She ALWAYS has been since she was a tiny baby- LOVES the beach! I swear she could entertain herself at the beach indefinately!

(I swear the water was warm and I was NOT torturing her) little Lena, however, is not sure about the beach yet

Bailey entertained herself with the birds at the beach. I think she chased them the whole time we were there!

Halloween was a blast! Piper and Bailey were Minie and Mickey Mouse at the ward trunk-or-treat and Lena was a lobster in Chef Curtis's pot. Then for Halloween Piper wanted to be a butterfly (from TWO years ago! I couldn't believe it still fit!) and Bailey was Mickey and Lena was a little pumpkin. We partied at Julie's AWESOME Halloween party and then went off to collect some sweets! Bailey didn't fair too well in the treats department because she couldn't walk and therefore couldn't go to as many houses but I don't think she minded - we just hung out at Julie's house and ate all her Halloween candy:) while Piper went trick-or-treating with the big kids and Julie.

It sure has been a fun month and we are still on a high from having so many cousins here to play with! Wish we could do it more often!

Pumkin Patch:)

I know! I have a lot of catching up to do but I thought I'd start with the most recent seeing as it is the most festive activity we have done lately:) This last weekend Curtis actually didn't have to work! Hooray! So, although I REALLY wanted to go to a pumkin patch that was almost 2 hour away with pony rides and pig races, we instead decided to try out the little patch by our house. And it was still FUN! It was super hot and the mosquitos had a field day on us but we got the best darn pumkins in League City:) Kennedy was staying with us for the weekend and the girls sure LOVED having her around!!!!!! Bailey is still asking if "Kenny" can sit by her in the car. I told the girls they could go pick whatever pumkin they wanted...Piper came back with one of those tiny gord pumkins haha. She was obsessed with it and therefore Bailey was too. I couldn't get them to focus on picking out a carvable pumkin until I agreed to buying a "baby" pumking too. Funny what they decide is obsessive worthy:)

I Love this picture of Bailey helping pick up the HEAVY pumpkin - she sure helped daddy out:) Well this WAS the pumkin Bailey picked until she discovered that Piper picked a white one so guess what...yup bye bye orange pumpkin and we hunted for another white one:)






Piper found a little hay pile and LOVED it...

Bailey, however, did not! Check out my blue pumkpkin!!!!

All in all - Good pumkin pickin'